IF you’re going to have a bad day at the office, best make sure it’s not your first.
Opening impressions are everything and this notion will have shot into the head of poor, young Harry Souttar yesterday afternoon as he penned a loan move to Ross County until the end of the season.
However, it wasn’t quite as quick as his header, just 40 minutes into his debut at Fir Park later that night, shot into his own net. The Stoke City defender came on as an early substitute for Owen Coyle’s men who were desperately hunting for their first win since beating Motherwell back on November 4.
Almost three months and 11 games on, all the 19-year-old did was trigger the downfall of his own side as their hosts gladly accepted their second own goal gift in the space of two games.
A Curtis Main strike just two minutes after the restart ended the game as a contest but really it rarely looked like being one here. County had the chance to close the gap on Motherwell here to four points and climb out of bottom spot in the Ladbrokes Premiership over Partick Thistle on goal difference, but there was little to cling to for the 52 brave souls who made their way down the A9 on a titanic crusade.
In truth it was a game that wasn’t quality viewing, something synonymous with Motherwell over the last 24 hours. The club’s media team could be in line for a late inclusion into the Oscars for their effort to announce the permanent signing of on-loan Blackpool centre-half Peter Hartley.
In a parody of Manchester United’s unveiling of Alexis Sanchez, the Englishman could be seen playing a toy piano to the tune of a fans’ chant before later smashing the thing up. It may be difficult to explain, but it has already been watched over 4million times.
To say the highlight reel of the game that followed won’t quite hit the same heights is perhaps a bit of an understatement. Indeed the main talking point early on was Andrew Davies going off injured after five minutes to be replaced by Souttar. A series of sporadic half chances swimming in a sea of hopelessness soon followed. That was until the 45th minutes when the former Dundee United defender bulleted Andy Rose’s cross high into the top corner from five yards out.
Any sort of team-talk for Coyle would have gone flying away with it. A hope of taking anything ahead of Sunday’s visit of Rangers soon followed.
Marcus Fraser was caught dithering on the ball on 47 minutes by Nadir Ciftci, much to the frustration of the County man who claimed for a foul. It didn’t come, just a terrific arched ball into the box by Ciftci, allowing Main to nip in ahead of his marker and turn the ball high beyond Aaron McCarey for his first in claret and amber.
Felllow County debutant David N’Gog was thrown on by Coyle in search for a lifeline, but the closest the visitors came to pulling one back came on the hour when Ross Draper was denied twice in quick succession.
That was about it as Motherwell move back into the top six place.
Cheers greeted their second win on the bounce, while simply cries of ‘No excuses Coyle. This is hopeless’ rang out from one lone Highlander at the back of the Phil O’Donnell Stand.
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